Pig farmers respond to claims of animal cruelty

Officers from the Animal Health Agency and Trading Standards inspected The Happy Pig Farm on Sluice Lane, off Herbrand Walk, last Friday after a neighbour reported concerns to the RSPCA.

But owner Keith Barnett, 60, who set up the farm five years ago with 26-year-old Andrew Dyer-Wright, of Bexhill, called the story as reported in national newspaper the Daily Mail "absolute falsehood".

"They have misquoted us. They have suggested things which were not there, and talked about squalor. You can come down and have a look '“ there is no squalor."

He admitted two pigs had died but denied any neglect.

"The animal that died was 13-years-old, which is way past their normal life expectancy. We got him because he had come to the end of his useful life on a farm and was going to be put down, so we took him and let him retire with us.

"We let him wander around and he had his own house '“ he was called Boris. He even fathered another litter.

"Then he had a girlfriend who was the same age and she also died, about five days before. You might even say he died of a broken heart but that is stupid...but they were both about the same age, both retired,they both died '“ perhaps aggravated by extreme temperatures. And that's really it.

"Unfortunately, it took a couple of days to get him shifted. He died on Monday or thereabouts but we didn't get him shifted until Friday."

Mr Barnett says he was waiting for the slaughterman to come to the farm and complete the necessary registration and paperwork before removal but this could not be arranged earlier because of weather conditions.

"I am actually devastated," he commented. "We like our animals '“ they have all got names... to say we were mistreating them is an absolute travesty.

"I will admit to there being mud in their house but that was because of recent rain. And it is only mud."

RSPCA officers told Mr Barnett there will be a check in a month on conditions at the farm and to make sure it is clean. He added: "There's no legal procedure... I admit at the time they came it was muddy, but next day it was due to be strawed up anyway."

The Mail talked of ravenous pigs cannibalising rotting corpses in their hunger, and said three more were slaughtered due to bad health. But Mr Barnett said the claims had misrepresented the truth.Three pigs had been put down, he said, after vets told him they were malnourished because more dominant pigs were blocking their feeding.

He said: "The vet said we could keep them and they would be OK, but it would be a long time before they came up to weight. They were healthy but thin because they had been bullied when feeding. It would take about six months or so to bring them up to weight."

He denied neglecting the pigs' feed, and told the Observer that a second vet who inspected the farm on Wednesday had left "very pleased".

Reacting to neighbours' claims of pigs eating the dead body of another pig, Mr Barnett said: "We never saw a pig eating another pig at all. We thought it was the foxes."

Calie Woozley, spokesman for the RSPCA, would not discuss whether charges would be brought against the pair, but commented: "We would like to reassure the public that we are aware of the situation and are monitoring conditions, but we are unable to go into further information at this time."

Rother District Councillor Stuart Wood, who founded the farmers' market in Parkhurst Hall where until recently the Happy Pig Company had a stall, said he had been concerned for some time about the company, and that he was writing to ask them not to attend the market.

He said: "I and other farmers' market organisers have been trying to do what we could with Trading Standards and environmental health officers to check things and this seems to prove what we were concerned about."